Carter Maddox had once loved her past all reason.

He'd told her, more times than she could count:

"Erica is the most important person in my life. Anyone who makes you unhappy, even a little, I'll never let them get away with it."

And now here he was, laying down a threat like this to her, all to protect another woman and her child.

Tears rose in her eyes. Erica forced them down.

She stared at him.

"We were together five years. You said you'd marry me this fall. Carter, what was I ever to you?"

Carter lowered his lashes and wouldn't look at her.

"I'm sorry. Let's break up."

Break up?

The two words landed like a shove into an ice cellar, and Erica felt the blood in her whole body turn solid.

She fixed her eyes on the man she'd loved for five years, and the tears finally spilled over.

"Carter, do you have any conscience left?"

"Do you even remember? Junior year, you fell into the campus lake. I can't swim, and I jumped in after you without thinking twice. I spent three days in the ICU. The doctors said the cold did too much damage, that I'd never be able to have children. Have you forgotten all of that?"

His throat worked, but he said nothing.

"And your parents!" The tears wouldn't stop now. "The year they were in that car accident, who stayed at the hospital for a whole month without so much as changing out of her clothes? Your mother lost control of her bladder and bowels, and I was the one who cleaned her. Your father spiked a fever in the middle of the night. Where were you? You were pulling overtime at the office. I was the one being a good child in your place!"

She closed the distance between them, step by step.

"I gave you everything in me. I gave you the best years of my life. Carter, can you look me in the eye and say you did right by me?"

At last he raised his head and met her eyes.

"I know. Everything you've said, I know. I loved you too, Erica. I really did love you."

"Loved?" Erica let out a cold laugh.

"And now? What is this now?"

Carter drew a deep breath.

"Laura is… different. She's simple. She doesn't understand anything, like a blank sheet of paper. She isn't strong and independent the way you are. Without me, she can't survive."

He paused, and his voice dropped lower.

"But you're different. Without me, you'll still be just fine."

Erica stood frozen, as if he'd slapped her hard across the face.

She understood at last. Some people never intended to walk with you all the way to the end.

And she was nothing more than a side character in someone else's story.

Her lips trembled.

"So because I'm strong, I deserve to be betrayed? Because I'm independent, I deserve to be thrown away? Carter, what kind of garbage logic is that?"

Carter frowned, a trace of helplessness in his voice.

"Don't be like this. That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Erica was nearly screaming now. "Say it! Tell me, where exactly do I fall short of her? Is it because she's younger and prettier than me? Or because she can give you children?"

The instant the words left her mouth, she froze herself.

Because she can give you children.

The sentence went in like a needle, straight into the softest place in her heart.

She thought of the afternoon she woke from the ICU.

Carter had held her hand, his eyes rimmed red, kissing her forehead again and again, saying:

"Ricky, you scared me half to death. Don't you ever do that again. I won't have you risking your life for me."

Later, when she found out she could never carry a child, she'd hidden on the hospital rooftop and cried the whole afternoon.

Carter had searched the entire building, and when he finally found her on the roof, he'd pulled her tight against him and said:

"It doesn't matter. We won't have children. Having you is enough. You're the most important family I'll ever have in this life."

And now?

Now he had his arm around another woman, one carrying his child.

And for her sake, he was threatening Erica, telling her they were through.

Erica felt her heart torn clean in two.

All at once she thought herself an utter fool.

She remembered last winter, one of Terence Donaldson's dinners, everyone crowded around a big shared meal.

Mavis James had raised her glass, grinning.

"Ricky and Carter are just meant for each other. I saw it back in high school! So when are you two getting married? I'm waiting to drink at the wedding!"

Terence had chimed in from the side.

"Exactly. If you two don't get married, none of us are ever going to believe in love again."

Carter had smiled then, draped an arm over her shoulders, dipped his head, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Soon. Once I've got things settled at the company, I'll marry her this fall."

That night, home again, she'd been too happy to sleep, turning it over and over in her mind: where the wedding should be, what style of gown to choose, what color paper for the invitations.

She'd even gone to look at baby things. She knew she couldn't have her own, but she'd thought maybe they could adopt. Carter loved children so much, he'd surely make a wonderful father.

Thinking of it now, by then Carter was probably already making a baby with Laura.

Coaxing her with promises of marrying her in the fall, and turning around to marry someone else and have a child.

While she, like an idiot, had been kept completely in the dark.

"Terence and Mavis, they both knew, didn't they?"

Carter's eyes flickered.

"They…"

"They knew you were already married, didn't they?" Erica cut him off. "They watched me circle around you like a fool for two years, watched me eagerly planning our wedding, and not one of them said a single word to me."

The tears came again.

"I treated them as my best friends. This is how they treated me."

Erica started to laugh.

"Fine. If this is how all of you want to play it, then I'll go tell Laura right now that her husband has a girlfriend of five years on the side!"

"Erica!" Carter's face changed in an instant. He grabbed her arm, gripping hard enough to hurt. "Don't you dare!"

Just then a timid voice came from behind them.

"Carter… the two of you… you know each other?"

Both of them went rigid at the same moment.

Erica turned her head and saw Laura standing in the doorway, one hand on her heavily pregnant belly, a cup of water in the other.

Carter's face changed instantly into something gentle. He crossed to her.

"Why did you come out? It's cold out here. Go back inside."

Laura didn't move. Her eyes went past his shoulder and settled on Erica.

"Are you and my husband acquainted?"

The air went silent.

Carter opened his mouth, but Erica got there first.

"We are."

She looked at the gift bag in Laura's hand and gave a small smile.

"Those cufflinks you sold me — I'm the one who gave them to him."

Laura's eyes went wide.

"He and I were together for five years."

The color drained out of Laura's face in an instant.

The cup shattered on the floor, shards of porcelain scattering everywhere. She stumbled back a step and caught the doorframe, lips trembling as she looked at Carter.

"Carter, is it true? Were you two together for five years?"

Carter's face went ashen, fury churning at the back of his eyes.

He spun around and closed the distance to Erica in a few strides.

Crack.

His hand landed hard across her face.

She staggered into the wall with a dull thud.

Her head rang, her vision blacked out for a moment, and something warm slid slowly down from her temple, staining half of what she could see red.

Before she could steady herself, a large hand clamped down hard around her throat.

Carter's fingers tightened, pinning her whole body against the wall.

"Didn't I tell you? Don't run your mouth. Don't set her off!"

Erica's hands went to his fingers on instinct, trying to pry them loose, but he didn't budge.

The suffocation rose over her like a tide. Her feet kicked uselessly against the floor, her nails dragging bloody streaks across the back of his hand, and still Carter showed no sign of letting go.

Her vision began to blur, the ringing in her ears louder and louder.

She looked at his twisted face and it struck her, suddenly, as utterly unfamiliar.

Was this the Carter who had once held her like she was precious?

The Carter who'd said, "Anyone who dares upset you, I'll never let them off"?

The Carter who'd said, "You're the only one I'll love in this life"?

The dark closed in thicker and thicker, and she felt herself starting to give out.

And then —

"Ah! My stomach — it hurts so much!"

Carter's grip froze.

He looked back and saw Laura clutching her swollen belly, her face white as paper, sliding slowly down the doorframe as fine cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

"Laura!"

Carter let go of Erica's throat in an instant and rushed over.

With nothing to hold her up, Erica sank limply to the floor, dragging in gulp after gulp of air, her throat raw and burning.

She lifted her eyes and through the blur saw Carter kneeling beside Laura, gathering her carefully against him, his voice frantic to the point of breaking.

"Laura, how do you feel? Where does it hurt? Look at me, look at me!"

He fumbled his phone out of his pocket to call 911, his other hand gripping Laura's and pressing it to his own cheek.

"Don't be scared. I'll get you to the hospital right now. You and the baby are going to be fine, do you hear me? You'll be fine!"

He hung up, lifted Laura into his arms, and started toward the elevators.

He passed right by Erica without a single glance.

The elevator doors closed, and Erica was left alone, sitting in the empty elevator hall.

She leaned against the wall, the blood from her forehead already reaching her jaw, and at last she made up her mind. She took out her phone and sent a text.

"Dad, I'm not marrying Carter. I'll go through with the arranged match."

She shoved the phone back into her pocket and pushed herself up off the wall, swaying on her feet.

Her head spun so badly the whole world tilted around her.

Once she was out of the complex, Erica flagged down a cab to the hospital.

In the car, she closed her eyes, and the image kept coming back to her, Carter carrying Laura into the elevator.

He'd been so frantic, so afraid, as if Laura were the only thing in his life that mattered.

And she counted for nothing.

She lost track of how long they drove before the car stopped.

The driver glanced back. "We're here, miss."

Erica opened her eyes, paid the fare, and pushed the door open.

She hadn't even reached the ER lobby when two tall men in black suits stepped into her path.

She froze.

One of them spoke, his face blank.

"Miss Butler, Mr. Maddox told us to wait for you here."

Her heart gave a hard jolt.

A flicker of something almost absurd rose in her chest, a small hope. Had Carter's conscience finally caught up with him?

"He sent you... to take me to get my head looked at?"

The two bodyguards traded a glance.

"Mr. Maddox says his wife urgently needs a transfusion. Your blood type matches hers. Please come with us."

Erica stood there rooted to the spot, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head.

"For Laura?"

"Yes, Miss Butler. Please come with us."

Erica took a step back. "No."

"I'm not going. I'm a patient too. I need to see a doctor myself. Get out of my way."

The two bodyguards exchanged another look and didn't move.

"Miss Butler, please don't make this difficult for us."

"Mr. Maddox said it's because of you that his wife needs the blood. You brought this on yourself."

"I already told you, I'm not going." Erica stepped around them and headed toward the ER lobby. "He wants blood, he can figure it out himself. The hospital blood bank is full of it. Why does it have to come out of my arm?"

She'd taken two steps when a strong arm caught her from behind by the elbow.

"Sorry about this, Miss Butler."

The next second she was hauled clean off her feet.

One on each side, the two bodyguards lifted her whole body without effort, ignoring how she thrashed, and carried her in long strides across the hospital lobby toward the inpatient wing.

"Let go of me! Let go!" Erica kicked her legs wildly. "Help! Somebody help me!"

People in the corridor turned to look, but not one of them stepped forward.

She was carried into the transfusion room and forced down into a chair.

The nurse took one look at her and sucked in a sharp breath.

"What... what is going on here? Her head is injured. We need to treat the wound first—"

"Leave it." Carter's voice came from the doorway. "Draw the blood first."

Erica lifted her head and looked toward the door through blurring eyes.

Carter stood there, arms crossed over his chest, his face dark.

"Carter, I'm a person too. I'm hurt. Can't you even look at me?"

Carter didn't answer.

He tipped his chin at the nurse. "Do it."

The nurse bit her lip, picked up the tourniquet, and tied it around Erica's arm.

Bright red blood ran down the tube into the bag, one bag, then another.

Her face went whiter and whiter, her lips fading from pale pink to gray, her body shaking beyond her control, her vision blurring, a ringing filling her ears.

The nurse looked at the reading on the blood pressure monitor, and her expression changed.

"We can't take any more! Her pressure is too low. If we keep going, she could die!"

Carter walked over and looked down at Erica.

She sat in the chair looking like one gust of wind could scatter her bones.

He reached out and touched her cheek.

"Do something wrong, and you have to be punished."

"Consider this a lesson in what you should and shouldn't say from now on. Behave, and I'll let you stay by my side."

He bent down and said, gently,

"It's not as if a barren woman like you will ever find a man willing to marry you anyway. Isn't that right?"

Erica's lashes trembled.

Her heart felt like a knife had split it down the middle, then kneaded it, torn it, ground it down, until she couldn't breathe.

Whose fault was it that she couldn't have children?

She'd lost the right to ever be a mother saving Carter, and now he was throwing it in her face.

Ungrateful animal.

Carter straightened, glanced at the blood bag, and said to the nurse, "Keep going."

The nurse gritted her teeth and drew another half bag.

At last Erica's head dropped, and she lost consciousness entirely.

The blood pressure monitor let out a piercing alarm, and the mood in the transfusion room snapped tight.

A doctor rushed in, took one look at Erica, and went pale. "Stop the transfusion now! Get ready to resuscitate! We're losing her!"

Carter stood off to the side, watching the medical staff scramble to lift Erica onto a gurney and wheel her out of the transfusion room.

He hesitated a moment, then didn't follow. He turned and walked into Laura's room.